March 20, 2010 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
The town of Lyndeborough, New Hampshire, voted last weekend to approve a warrant article —a kind of citizen-prompted legislation— banning any method of vote-counting that is not fully conducted within view of citizen election monitors. The vote means that even traditional methods of counting ballots, if conducted in a “blind” way, out of view of people who can assess the physical veracity of the count, will not be considered legitimate within the town.
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February 28, 2010 :: Riga Listin :: No Comment Yet
The media are exploding with reports that explicitly declare that “the public opposes the current healthcare reform bills” passed by both houses of Congress. In fact, this is patently false, and any of the major polls on the subject bear this out, if one devotes the time necessary to understand the numbers. It is inaccurate to say “the public opposes”, because there is not one uniform majority of Americans opposing a specific set of initiatives in the pending reforms.
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February 27, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
‘Psychic numbing’ is a relatively new term, assigned to the phenomenon which shows people tend to feel less urgent compassion, and tend to give less, when the suffering in question is shown to be more systemic and more pervasive, or affecting larger numbers of people. Some psychologists believe it is linked to our intuitive sense that if one suffers alone, the suffering is worse, but if one is accompanied, there might be some security in numbers, not just emotionally, but practically.
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February 20, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
In response to a recent article, explaining that record snowfall in certain places does not equate to a proof that global warming is not happening, but rather, that global warming is an apt explanation for why the record snowfalls would occur there, a number of climate skeptics chose to attack certain points in the piece, using what they take to be established science. In some cases, the evidence cited was simply misrepresented or misinterpreted, according to the wishes of the skeptics themselves.
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February 14, 2010 :: Denver Lessing :: No Comment Yet
Newsmax, the ultra-right-wing political propaganda outfit that calls itself a news service, is once again using its news pages to push financial get-rich-quick schemes on its customers. While railing against any politician who happens to be a Democrat and who is struggling to fix the problems 30 years of Republican de-regulation of wrought on the American economy as anti-American, Newsmax has routinely sought to push its readers into risky foreign currency trading schemes. Now, it’s pitching financial services directly.
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February 2, 2010 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
I’ve said this before, but I’m a big believer not just in the value of a loyal opposition, but in its necessity. Having differences of opinion, having a real debate about matters of domestic policy and national security — and that’s not something that’s only good for our country, it’s absolutely essential. It’s only through the process of disagreement and debate that bad ideas get tossed out and good ideas get refined and made better. And that kind of vigorous back and forth — that imperfect but well-founded process, messy as it often is — is at the heart of our democracy. That’s what makes us the greatest nation in the world.
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February 1, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
Howard Zinn, author of the monumental work, A People’s History of the United States, revolutionized the field of historical research the world over, establishing the principle that true historical narrative must include a genuine reporting of indigenous experience and a more multifaceted factual accounting of events, including the impact of efforts to establish a new civilization on traditional cultures. Zinn died last week of heart failure, aged 87.
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January 30, 2010 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
Pres. Barack Obama yesterday attended a first-of-its-kind question and answer session, as part of a Republican Congressional caucus conference in Baltimore. The president took some aggressive questions, classed by media analysts as “grandstanding”, from some Republicans who pushed the party line on the refusal of Democrats to deal with them. Obama adroitly and with a [...]
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January 28, 2010 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
A recent NBC/WSJ poll shows rising frustration among voters with the failure to move major reforms through Congress. But while the media have repeatedly pushed the notion that Pres. Obama may be losing favor, the NBC/WSJ poll shows 48% of people say Republicans in Congress are to blame for the nation’s unsolved problems, for their relentless obstruction of Democratic proposals, while 41% blame the Democrats in Congress, and only 27% blame Pres. Obama.
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January 20, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
We are hearing some of the most long-faced, long-winded, wet-blanket commentary about American politics, the prospects for far-reaching and much-needed reform, and the charisma and talent of Barack Obama. We are hearing so much of it, in fact, it seems to be the latest fashion trend, with conservatives, liberals, moderates and extremists, all apparently gleeful about having a trend to latch onto, if about nothing else. People are reportedly “weary” and “worried”; polls are showing, or claim to show, that “Americans” —we should remember to ask if polls really are able to define the zeitgeist for us all, or if they only pretend to— think Pres. Obama has “tried to do too much”.
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December 24, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
Pres. Barack Obama took office in the midst of the worst economic recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s, with two wars in Asia and skyrocketing unemployment, record numbers of bankruptcies, a financial services industry in a state of near total paralysis and/or collapse, and declining federal revenues with which to alleviate the fast-rising federal budget deficit. Not one of those aspects of life in 2009 America was caused by anything Barack Obama did before or after assuming the presidency. Yet the new game in Washington, DC, is blaming Obama for everything everyone else failed to do, both before and after he assumed the presidency.
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December 24, 2009 :: staff :: 3 Comments
The pulitzer prize-winning news service PolitiFact.com, a fact-checking operation of the St. Petersburg Times, has awarded Sarah Palin its first ever “Lie of the Year” award, for her patently false claim that healthcare reform legislation would create “death panels”. Properly told, the lie of the year is the “death panels” claim itself, for which Palin is only partly responsible. She appears to have been responsible for the most high profile and most fundamentally false telling of the lie, though other Republican opponents of healthcare reform had falsely asserted that reimbursement for doctors who provide end of life counseling would be devoted to a campaign of euthanasia designed to eliminate the elderly and infirm.
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December 22, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
The Republican party is now taking a political position radically opposed to their entire philosophical and strategic posture during the healthcare debate. Upset to learn that Sen. Ben Nelson may have won special funding guarantees to help his state provide funding for Medicaid in an economic climate where the state is facing record budget shortfalls and may have to cut funding, Sen. Lindsey Graham is now demanding full federal funding for his state’s Medicaid program. Republicans have jumped on the bandwagon and are now demanding that Medicaid funding for their states be expanded as well.
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December 22, 2009 :: Denver Lessing :: No Comment Yet
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is alleging “back-room dealmaking” and what he believes to be a misuse of office in Sen. Ben Nelson’s securing additional federal funding for his state’s Medicaid program, which is facing a severe budget shortfall. He wants the attorney general of his state to investigate whether anything unconstitutional was done in the dealmaking process. But Graham was part of numerous “dealmaking” sessions in the Bush-era Senate, in which corruption was not only alleged but was more or less publicly demonstrable.
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December 7, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
The e-mails that were stolen from servers at the British University of East Anglia’s climate science center do not show evidence of any conspiracy to falsify science; all they really reveal is evidence of how poorly some people handle political tensions regarding an issue of grave importance for human civilization. So far, the only thing the e-mail scandal has shown is that a handful of people felt that junk science might derail needed environmental regulatory reforms on which the future of human civilization will depend.
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December 6, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
A prominent Russian journalist, Olga Kotovskaya, has been killed in a mysterious fall from a building in Kaliningrad, under circumstances press rights groups believe suggest yet another attack on press freedom by shadowy individuals linked to the government. Kotovskaya had just won an important court victory over the government and should have been allowed to take back control of a TV network she had founded.
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December 3, 2009 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
GE, the parent company of NBC Universal, has agreed to a deal that would give Comcast a controlling interest in the media giant. NBC Universal is one of the leading producers of feature films, network television and TV news. Its flagship news services, NBC News, MSNBC, and CNBC, could see their budgets affected by the sale, and there are concerns over conflict of interest for a cable TV and internet service provider owning a controlling stake in such a vast media enterprise. Congressional hearings and federal communications regulatory investigations are considered likely to ensue, before the deal can be implemented.
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November 18, 2009 :: Riga Listin :: No Comment Yet
A lawsuit by a former Washington editor for the New York Post has revealed that the paper’s Washington bureau chief told her the newspaper’s official aim was to “destroy Barack Obama”. The revelation comes amid a spreading controversy over accusations the media properties owned by conservative media tycoon Rupert Murdoch have been used to fabricate news, organize phony Republican rallies, orchestrate sham grassroots groups —called ‘astroturf’ organizations—, systematically misrepresent the facts and personally attack political opponents of Murdoch’s preferred party and candidates.
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November 15, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
What did Jon Voight mean by suggesting that Pres. Obama is the first and only president in our history to shame “our beautiful White House”, alleging he plans a socialist takeover that would undermine the Constitution? In fact, Pres. Obama is significantly more centrist on a range of issues than were Jimmy Carter, Lyndon Johnson, [...]
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November 11, 2009 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
Lou Dobbs’ last broadcast on CNN aired tonight. His resignation, which he announced on the air, was effective immediately. He blamed “partisanship and ideology” in the public sphere for undermining public discourse and said the “winds of change” were blowing across the nation and that he would like to pursue “other opportunities” in order to speak as honestly about the problems the nation faces as he can.
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November 6, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: 2 Comments
The radical fringe of the Republican party today gathered to hear Michelle Bachmann call for open rebellion against the government. Signs were held up in front of the US Capitol showing a Nazi mass grave and calling it “healthcare”. Other signs showed the president as an evil villain and calling for “hunting season” against moderate Republicans. The rally, which Rep. Bachmann called a “press conference”, is now being called the most visible admission the party is being taken over by a message of hate.
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November 2, 2009 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
After we published an article detailing the history of Lou Dobbs’ incendiary and distorted rhetoric against immigrants, along with allegations that Dobbs’ angry persecution of Hispanic Americans is inflaming racist sentiment, we received several responses from commenters seeking to defend Dobbs by repeating racist stereotypes in some cases too radical to publish here. Some suggested [...]
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October 20, 2009 :: Denver Lessing :: No Comment Yet
ewsmax had in recent weeks tried to debunk Keith Olberman’s report that conservative blogs, political action committees and front groups were buying Sarah Palin’s book in massive quantities to rig book sales, by claiming they are doing the opposite, with the following claim: “But the truth is that Newsmax has not purchased one book from Amazon. In fact, we are offering the book both FREE and at an incredible discount to Amazon.”
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October 17, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
Lou Dobbs, who used to paint himself as a well-to-do, rational and no-nonsense reporter interested in getting to the bottom of economic matters, has morphed into a pundit who nightly champions violent anti-immigrant groups and seeks to fit all Hispanic immigrants with the label “criminal illegal aliens”. He has lied about the number of undocumented immigrants in US jails and has failed to report that undocumented immigrants are responsible for far less violent crime than US citizens.
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October 16, 2009 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
There are rumors circulating that Iran’s supreme leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamene’i, is dead, or in a coma. The rumors are unconfirmed, which also means not proven false, and this has spurred still further speculation that the rumors might be true and Iran’s government struggling to determine how to see a smooth transition to a successor’s reign. The most prominent cleric after Khamene’i is a staunch opponent of the government of Mahmoud Ahmedinejad.
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October 13, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
The health insurance industry has released a sponsored “study” to show that if the Senate finance committee’s version of healthcare reform were to pass, they would explode costs over the next few years by as much as 40%. The report is being greeted with outrage, as the insurance firms, which stand to reap possibly hundreds of billions in new business from expanded coverage, appear to be trying to extort a strict universal mandate with harsh penalties for noncompliance.
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October 11, 2009 :: Eva Scherson :: No Comment Yet
We are watching the national media backslide into the irresponsible primordial ooze of the “culture wars”, where the false caricatures of “family values conservatives” and “promiscuous progressives” (read ‘progressive’ into sexuality, social policy and spending) are pitted against each other in a nostalgic bid to recapture the oversimplified false stereotypes of the 1960s hotbed moment.
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October 11, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
Dick Armey is the latest Republican to use language of incitement to promote lies about Pres. Obama’s health reform agenda. Armey says proposed reforms are “ruthless” in their treatment of healthcare recipients. But just about the only truths in his comments are that there are in fact health reforms being proposed and that they have something to do with healthcare recipients.
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October 6, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
John Stossel today published an opinion piece in Real Clear Politics, in which he proclaims the very original regressive tax argument that the wealthy are carrying “too much of the burden” and literally funding the lives of the lazier half of society. He alleges that half the American population will pay no taxes this year, because essentially they are living off the overburdened wealthy. Mr. Stossel neglects to mention that the reason nearly half of all households will pay no income tax is because they are too poor.
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September 22, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
This article began as a response to a very heated comment left by one user of the Open Salon network who seems to be a physician, based on some of his phrasing. The usefulness of the exchange is meaningful, because the commenter is a physician who is very afraid of some of the key elements of the proposed healthcare reform framework. (As a margin note: the AMA —the doctors’ biggest national association— favors the proposed reforms and says they will help both doctors and patients.)
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September 16, 2009 :: Denver Lessing :: One Comment
FOX News has relentlessly smeared and defamed the umbrella organization for volunteer community groups, ACORN, openly participating in a concerted nationwide effort to promote false charges of illegal activity and force the group to stop all involvement in efforts to bring urban and minority voters to the polls.
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September 11, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
Rep. Charles Boustany, an experienced cardiologist who says he wants health insurance reform and to cut costs across the system, and who delivered the Republican response to Pres. Obama’s address on Wednesday, again misrepresented the president’s position on healthcare reform, saying Obama has not focused any attention on the doctor-patient relationship.
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September 9, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: No Comment Yet
Rep. Charles Boustany lied repeatedly in his official Republican response to Pres. Obama. The first major lie was his reiteration of the false claim that Obama is proposing a “government takeover” of healthcare that would “replace” healthcare American families already have. Not only has that never been proposed; Obama had just explained that the public option, if passed, would only apply to the uninsured.
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September 8, 2009 :: Denver Lessing :: No Comment Yet
Why is FOX News using images from the attacks of 11 September 2001, including voice-overs such as “enormous death toll”, to advertise its own airing of a documentary called “9/11: Timeline of Terror”? The ads are flagrantly disrespectful to all those who lost someone on that day: the tone is almost pornographic in nature, highlighting violence, terror and death as a point of attraction for those who might want to view their report.
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September 8, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
Pres. Obama plans to speak to school children in a special televised address, to be available live online, on Tuesday, in order to remind them of the value of hard work and excellence in study. The message is clearly oriented toward encouraging students who might not do so to remain in school, pursue a better education and to take responsibility for choices that will help them make a better future for themselves. But a rash of protest from conservative parents has caused controversy, prompting the White House to release the remarks early.
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September 4, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: No Comment Yet
In an interview with the McAlester News-Capital newspaper, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) —the senior senator from his state— strung together one lie after another, in an apparent effort to slander Pres. Obama and derail healthcare reform. There are no softer words for Inhofe’s incessant lies and fabrications. He has apparently pledged his time and energy to the hard labor of being an inveterate and unapologetic professional slanderer.
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September 2, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) has told a town hall meeting that he doesn’t need to read legislation on healthcare reform or to know any details of what’s in it, he will oppose it out of hand. Astonishingly, the senator told the citizens gathered that “I don’t have to read it, or know what’s in it. I’m going to oppose it anyways”. He didn’t say “let them die” about people in need of medical care who are uninsured, but the sentiment just might be there.
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September 1, 2009 :: Denver Lessing :: No Comment Yet
Why is Glenn Beck, the pseudo-emotional apocalyptic faux-evangelical conservative big mouth, bad news even for FOX News and its nakedly ideological content skew? In short, because even the most biased and uninformed viewers feel stupid listening to his lies. His antics are insulting to those he attacks, but also to those he seeks to woo, and his work is directly harming the conservative cause.
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August 17, 2009 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
La Casa Blanca del Pres. Barack Obama ha lanzado una web nueva ‘La Realidad’, para corregir información falsa que han propagado los que oponen reformas al sistema de seguridad sanitaria. La web tiene como fin darle al público estadounidense hispanoparlante información concreta y correcta sobre las propuestas reformas actualmente presentadas en las dos cámaras del Congreso.
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August 16, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: No Comment Yet
“I think Governor Palin knew exactly what she was doing”, says Republican strategist Ed Gillespie about Palin’s lie that the Obama administration plans to institute “death panels” to euthanize the elderly, infirm or “no longer productive”. Gillespie told ABC’s ‘This Week’ that he views it as disappointing whenever anyone “from either party” makes misleading, false or manipulated statements.
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August 15, 2009 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
Your report “Violence at Town Hall Meetings Could Escalate” uses inflammatory, irresponsible language and is full of misstatements of fact and even overt falsehoods. It also appears the document could be used to promote a campaign of violence against citizens or public officials promoting reform.
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August 12, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
Now, let me just start by setting the record straight on a few things I’ve been hearing out here — (laughter) — about reform. Under the reform we’re proposing, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan. You will not be waiting in any lines. This is not about putting the government in charge of your health insurance. I don’t believe anyone should be in charge of your health insurance decisions but you and your doctor. (Applause.) I don’t think government bureaucrats should be meddling, but I also don’t think insurance company bureaucrats should be meddling. That’s the health care system I believe in. …
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August 12, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: No Comment Yet
It is a mystery to many people why certain political fringe elements are so violently enraged by the idea of extending healthcare coverage to all Americans. Some individuals have made racist and degrading remarks about Pres. Obama and his administration; some suggest that there is “evil” behind efforts to expand healthcare coverage to those who don’t have it; some say things like “then there’s the illegals, they shouldn’t even be here!” shouting in anger.
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August 10, 2009 :: Denver Lessing :: 4 Comments
The United States Congress, in both houses, has entered August recess without passing a comprehensive healthcare reform package, setting the stage for a withering month-long national debate, in which opposing sides are likely to attack each other as threatening to undermine the nation’s future. Anti-reform groups, reportedly linked to the Republican party, have orchestrated interruptions and heckling of officials seeking to explain the grave need for proposed reforms.
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August 10, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 2 Comments
It has been suggested that the healthcare reform legislation currently before the House and Senate would set up a government committee to ration care and decide what care patients would receive. Some Republican opponents have even suggested individual senior citizens would be judged to be deserving of euthanasia if they are determined not to be productive members of society. The latter is absolutely false and has no basis whatsoever in the proposed reforms. The question of “rationing” care is also a false claim, and it’s important to understand why.
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August 9, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 2 Comments
Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin has adopted a brazen approach to countering Pres. Barack Obama’s proposed healthcare reforms: outright fabrication and unscrupulous lying. She has begun to make the 100% false allegation that Pres. Obama’s reforms would create a “death panel” tasked with promoting euthanasia and calling reform “downright evil”. It is perhaps the single most irresponsible and reprehensible lie told in the American political sphere in recent years.
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August 5, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
Now, we face unprecedented challenges to the right of people everywhere to access information intended for public consumption. Repressive governments are building state-of-the-art censorship , tracking and filtering mechanisms (the ‘Great Firewall of China’, for example), and internet service providers (ISP) are seeking to establish profit-dr… that limit users’ access to certain websites or content-producers.
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August 5, 2009 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
The north Caucasus region, Sudan’s Darfur, eastern DR Congo, Sri Lanka, Iraq and North Korea, are just an example of the range of physical risks journalists are facing. How can governments and news agencies work together to ensure greater freedom and better guarantees of protection for journalists doing the most necessary and most perilous work?
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August 4, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
The Associated Press perceives the routine standard for online journalism, blogging and social networking, which involves quoting, citing and linking to sources, as injurious to its revenue stream. It is now seeking to institute a blanket global policy, whereby quoting even 5 words by the AP would cost the quoting publication $12.50. Quoting 251 words or more would cost $100. Critics say the AP, like other online news producers, benefits immensely from the incoming links posted across the web by readers and journalists referring back to its news material.
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July 31, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 3 Comments
Recent polling on comprehensive healthcare reform has come to resemble something like push-polling, and major US media outlets have reported on poll results with a focus that skews the actual outcome in favor of opponents of major reform. The New York Times yesterday reported on “the latest New York Times/CBS News poll” with the plays-to-all-parties headline “New Poll Finds Growing Unease on Health Plan”, then leads with immensely misleading language about the meaning of the results.
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